The Challenge of Project Learning
Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.
A common definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, each time hoping for a different outcome. Like Sisyphus, so many of us roll the boulders that are our projects up a hillside of organizational resistance and challenge, each time hoping that this time we’ll reach the summit. When once again our burden plummets down the hillside, we experience the inevitable feelings of frustration, followed by the irrepressible commitment to next time approach things differently.
Frustratingly, “next time” never seems to come. Judging by the track records of the majority of project managers, the preceding sentences are not confusingly alien but achingly familiar. Which begs the question: If we do keep approaching the same projects the same way, and we do want a different outcome, how do we stop the insanity?
The greatest challenge that any organization faces is learning from its experiences. On a daily basis, staff members within organizations are confronted with a broad array of experiences and challenges. As new challenges emerge, new solutions are sought. The magnitude of change and the rapid pace of progress in most project environments, however, often short circuits the learning opportunities that make better solutions possible. As a result, we most typically try to do the best we can with what we have. While we may secretly …
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It's like deja vu all over again. - Yogi Berra |
